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Import and local polyolefin prices in Indonesia have witnessed a new round of increases this week, with sellers attributing the uptrend to strong crude oil futures along with expectations of an improvement in demand ahead of the Ramadan month...

Although there were several bearish factors pushing players to hold softer expectations, a major Taiwanese producer’s decision to cut its April PVC prices to China and India sharply caught most Asian players by surprise...

In the Middle East, March PE offers from the regional suppliers emerged with rollovers to increases amid higher energy and upstream costs. However, rising costs have failed filter through the March prices in African PE markets, where prices remained stable or decreased from February...

In China and Southeast Asia, import PS prices have maintained their stable to slightly firmer trend which has been mostly in place since the markets hit a more than one-year low in around early December...

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HDPE prices remain at two-and-a-half year high in Turkey

Turkey’s PE market has been on a bullish run for 3 months now while tight supplies have paved the way for larger increases in HDPE. According to the weekly average data from ChemOrbis Price Wizard, import HDPE prices are currently standing at a two-and-a-half year high as the cumulative increase has neared $200/ton since the market started to surge in November.

Higher upstream costs contributed to the increasing trend for PE as crude oil and ethylene prices saw a 3-year high on a global scale before cooling off later in late January. Largely restricted allocations from the Middle East, Iran and Uzbekistan also accelerated the upward momentum for HDPE in Turkey as 2018 started.

Currently, import HDPE film is trading at a premium of around $50/ton over LDPE and LLDPE film, as the weekly average data from ChemOrbis Price Wizard suggest. LDPE prices lost their premium over HDPE for the first time since two years as of late January. LLDPE started to trade at a discount compared to HDPE much earlier in November.

Short supplies continue to keep the near-term outlook strong for HDPE film and b/m, participants think, as the market may not find a quick relief considering the turnarounds at several Middle Eastern plants. “Vivid demand and short prompt supply have pushed HDPE further up this month, rendering it almost a black market recently. Prices are likely to sustain their strength until the off-line plants return from turnarounds by April,” players in Turkey concurred.

A similar scene was also valid in China, where HDPE prices traded with a massive premium of $150-170/ton over LDPE and LLDPE in the week before the New Year holiday given short supplies. The weekly average data unfold that HDPE has never carried such a large premium over LDPE since ChemOrbis started to keep records for China’s import market in 2008. Its premium over LLDPE also pointed to the largest figure since more than 6 years.

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